Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 19. september 2012 / Timeline September 19, 2012
Version 3.518. September 2012, 20. September 2012
09/19/2012
Construction Versus Destruction
By John Scales Avery
It is often said that ethical principles cannot be derived from
science , that they must come from somewhere else. Nevertheless,
when nature is viewed through the eyes of modern science, we obtain
some insights which seem almost ethical in character. Biology at
the molecular level has shown us the complexity and beauty of even
the most humble living organisms, and the interrelatedness of all
life on earth. Looking through the eyes of contemporary
biochemistry, we can see that even the single cell of an amoeba is
a structure of miraculous complexity and precision, worthy of our
respect and wonder.
Knowledge of the second law of thermodynamics , the statistical law
favoring disorder over order, reminds us that life is always
balanced like a tight-rope walker over an abyss of chaos and
destruction. Living organisms distill their order and complexity
from the flood of thermodynamic information which reaches the earth
from the sun. In this way, they create local order; but life
remains a fugitive from the second law of thermodynamics. Disorder,
chaos, and destruction remain statistically favored over order,
construction, and complexity.
It is easier to burn down a house than to build one, easier to kill
a human than to raise and educate one, easier to force a species
into extinction than to replace it once it is gone, easier to burn
the Great Library of Alexandria than to accumulate the knowledge
that once filled it, and easier to destroy a civilization in a
thermonuclear war than to rebuild it from the radioactive ashes.
Knowing this, we can form an almost ethical insight: To be on the
side of order, construction, and complexity, is to be on the side
of life. To be on the side of destruction, disorder, chaos and war
is to be against life, a traitor to life, an ally of death. Knowing
the precariousness of life, knowing the statistical laws that favor
disorder and chaos, we should resolve to be loyal to the principle
of long continued construction upon which life depends.
War is based on destruction, destruction of living persons,
destruction of homes, destruction of infrastructure, and
destruction of the biosphere. If we are on the side of life, if we
are not trators to life and allies of death, we must oppose the
institution of war. We must oppose the military-industrial complex.
We must oppose the mass media when they whip up war-fever. We must
oppose politicians who vote for obscenely enormous military budgets
at a time of financial crisis. We must oppose the planned illegal
and insane Israeli attack of Iran, which threatens to lead to a
world-destroying conflict. We must oppose these things by working
with dedication, as though our lives depended on it. In fact, they
do.
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